Graduate Course Descriptions

Graduate Course Lists

CL 506: Problems in Greek Archaeology Several different courses are taught under this general listing:

Ancient Greek Houses & Households The aim of this seminar is to introduce advanced students to the study of Greek domestic architecture, both in terms of the principle examples thereof and to the variety of methodological approaches to them. We will take up issues ranging from the use, function, and decorative elaboration of domestic space, to the domestic economy, to issues of status, ideology, and gender in the Greek house. (Ault)

Classical Urbanism Aspects of the city, city-state, and urbanism have long been a focus for scholars of ancient Greece. Historical and archaeological studies abound. Relatively recent important works include Murray and Price (1990), Hoepfner and Schwandner (1994), the numerous publications of the Copenhagen Polis Centre (cf. http://www.teachtext.net/bn/cpc/), and, most lately, Hansen (2006). This semester we will address and explore issues related to the Greek city and urbanism. Our approach to studying ancient cities should be diverse and interdisciplinary, oriented towards conceptual entities as well as physical realities. Topics for consideration will include case-studies of individual cities themselves, and may also take up the rise of the polis; varieties of public and sacred spaces, buildings and civic amenities (for example, the need for defense and measures of fortification), as well as aspects of their development, design and placement; orthogonal planning and Hippodamos of Miletus; urban development and design in the colonies; the relationship between the city and its countryside; and may also include allied, particularly ancient Near Eastern, Italic, and Roman manifestations of similar phenomena. (Ault)

The Iconography of Greek Painted Pottery This seminar should provide both a broad overview and in depth coverage of the study of painted pottery from the Greek world. Starting from the proposition that we can and should be reading material culture as a text, the iconography of and on Greek pots provides a singularly rich source for shedding light on numerous aspects of ancient Greece simply not recoverable through other avenues of exploration. (Ault)

The Greeks Overseas We shall consider Greek colonial and other activity abroad from an archaeological as well as an historical perspective. We will take up significant examples of where the Greeks left their mark as well as instances where others influenced them. Many avenues present themselves for study as part of our wide-ranging topic, from detailed considerations of settlements themselves, the foreign populations impacted by Greek culture, of relations between colonizers and the colonized, or between mother city and colony, as well as the phenomenon of the Greek apoikia within the larger historical framework of colonization, colonial and, more recently, post-colonial scholarship. Moreover, I would like to stage the seminar itself within the overarching framework of Braudelian and post-Braudelian Mediterranean Studies generally. (Ault)

The Topography of Athens and Attica We will spend the semester engaged in a diachronic survey of the urban and rural landscapes of Athens and Attica, considering not only the physical manifestations of cultural behaviors (i.e., sites, monuments, and artifacts), but their associated institutional, social, historical, and ideological aspects. That we may gain a deeper appreciation for how the discipline conducts itself, I would also like to take up issues impacting upon the history of Classical Archaeology, especially as practiced out of the omphalos of Athens. (Ault)

CL 508: Roman Archaeology 1 This course is designed to provide entry-level graduate students in Classical studies with a general introduction to the archaeology of the ancient Romans from early Iron Age down to the end of the Republic (ca. 1000-27 BC)

CL 512: End of Rome and Birth of Europe This course will look at the archaeology and history of Italy and Western Europe from the Reign of Constantine through the Reign of Charlemagne. It will use archaeological and documentary evidence to explore such topics as the Christianity of the Roman Empire, the Barbarian Invasions, changes and continuity of the cities and countryside of Europe and the rise of the new order in Merovingian and Carolingian Europe. Emphasis will be on the way that new discoveries, especially in archaeology have changed how we look at this period. (Dyson)

CL 527: History of Greek Literature

A survey of Greek poetry across the archaic, classical, and hellenistic periods, which aims to develop breadth of knowledge, reading skills, and familiarity with research tools for the study of Greek literature. This year’s readings will be organized around the theme of the ambivalent hero. (Fields)

A survey of Greek literature covering the principal genres of the archaic and classical periods. The course begins with Homeric questions and the production of literature, continues through Hesiod and early Greek poetry, philosophy, and the invention of prose, followed by Greek drama (both tragedy and comedy) and the writing of history, oratory, and philosophical theory. Concentration on developing reading skills and becoming familiar with the conventional and digital research tools available for studying Greek literature. (Higbie, Teegarden)

CL 528: History of Latin Literature This course provides an intensive survey of Latin literature, primarily poetry, from its beginnings to the early Empire. Through extended readings from a variety of authors, students will improve their understanding of the Latin language, including verse forms, and gain an overview of the history and development of Latin letters. In class, the instructor and students will address problems of comprehension, discuss literary history, and analyze poetics. (Coffee)

CL 530: The Ancient Economy A topical survey of the economy of the Roman Empire (offered jointly with an undergraduate section) that combines lectures, in-class presentations by students, and the discussion of readings. Emphasizes the different forms of textual and material cultural evidence available for the elucidation of the Roman economy and the ways in which historians and archaeologists employ these for economic analysis. The course is organized around weekly topics, including general models of the Roman economy, the free market versus the command economy, rationality, productivity and growth, money, labor and occupations, the economic role of towns, agricultural production, marketing, bankers and traders, consumption, and quantitative approaches to economic analysis. Written assignments are aimed at developing students’ skills in the summary and critical evaluation of scholarly literature and the execution of a literature survey.

CL 537: History of Latin Literature In this course, students will survey Latin verse from its origins to the present day and increase their reading proficiency through the reading and discussion of extended passages of Latin.

CL 538: History of Latin Literature 2 In this class students will improve their proficiency in reading Latin and survey the history of Latin literature from the first Latin authors down to the early medieval period. (Malamud)

CL 540: Pompeii A systematic survey in lecture format (offered jointly with an undergraduate section) of the remains of the buried city of Pompeii. The course aims to familiarize students with the ways in which archaeologists and historians have used the broad array of evidence available from the town (e.g., buildings, frescoes, sculpture, private archives, graffiti, pottery, metalwork and other portable material culture, human remains, environmental data) to illuminate various aspects of its social, political, religious, and economic life. Students complete a research design/mock grant proposal for a program of investigation regarding some aspect of Pompeii. (Dyson)

CL 543 (LAT 443): Reading of Latin Literature

Roman Satire The focus will be on Horace’s Satires and Epodes. We will work on increasing Latin reading speed, becoming familiar with Horace’s biography and the turbulent historical era he lived through, and improving understanding of grammar, syntax, and scansion. (Malamud)

Readings in Later Latin This will be a reading class directed at advanced undergraduates and graduate students, with readings in Latin. The readings will include a representative sample of Later Latin prose and poetry, both Christian and non-Christian. (Malamud)

Roman Invective and Verbal Abuse An exploration of the world of Roman verbal assault. Readings in Latin will range from inscriptions on sling bullets and walls, to scurrilous pamphlets, to formal full-blown invective speeches. We will investigate especially how themes within Roman invective reveal broader cultural values. (Dugan)

The Roman Novel Students will read substantial portions of the two surviving Roman novels, Petronius’ Satyricon and Apuleius’s Metamorphoses (or Asinus Aureus). In addition to improving reading speed and ability, the class will introduce the genre of the ancient novel. Students will be assigned secondary readings relating to the novels and will be expected not only to translate, but also to give oral reports on assigned topics and provide commentary on designated sections of the text. (Malamud)

CL 544 (GR 444): Reading Greek Literature

A close reading of Euripides​’ Helen (Teegarden) This course is designed to increase reading fluency in Greek and to introduce students to a variety of Greek authors. (Higbie)

A close reading of Aristotle’s Poetics (Woodard) Plutarch is one of the most important Greek writers of the Roman Empire. Long of interest to historians, his works have only recently gained attention for their literary qualities. In this course we will read Plutarch’s Life of Antony with the aims of improving reading speed and comprehension as well as gaining familiarity with Plutarch’s Atticizing style, the Greek culture of the Roman Empire, and the development of the biographical form. (Fields)

CL 580: Ancient Mediterranean Ceramics Several different courses are taught under this general listing:

Roman Pottery A systematic survey of the physical characteristics, chronology, technology/production, function, and cultural significance of the more common classes of pottery used in the Roman world, including tableware, cookware, utilitarian wares, and amphorae. Written assignments provide students experience in collecting information from the archaeological literature and writing this up in the form of reports.

Ceramic Analysis An intensive, hands-on introduction to some of the more important methods employed for the analysis of archaeological pottery and potting materials, including the analysis of the physical properties of clays, the evaluation of forming and surfacing procedures, the mineralogical and chemical characterization of pottery composition, the evaluation of pottery function, the quantification of pottery assemblages, and the evaluation of assemblage formation. Students complete a series of eight labs aimed at providing experience with the application of various analytical methods. They then apply the knowledge/experience gained in lectures/readings/labs to complete a research project involving the analysis of archaeological pottery and/or potting materials.

Material Culture in the Roman World An in-depth survey of material culture in the Roman world. The course aims to familiarize students with theoretical approaches to the consideration and study of material culture, the various categories of material culture produced by the Romans, the technologies employed for the manufacture of these items, and approaches to the description, analysis, and publication of Roman material culture. The course includes a visit to the Roman galleries of the Royal Ontario Museum, which contain the richest assemblage of Roman material culture on display in North America.

CL 590: Syntax and Stylistics Comprehensive review of Greek syntax in the context of selections from Greek literature. Texts include Attic prose of the classical period as well as traditional sub-literary genres examined as examples of style and patterns of syntax. Emphasis on writing Greek prose using selections from classical literature as models. (Higbie)

CL 593: Sanskrit 1 A linguistic and philological examination of Sanskrit, the ancient Indo-European language of India and one of the earliest attested of all Indo-European languages. The course focuses on the study of Sanskrit grammar and Sanskrit readings from the Nala episode of the MahÅbhÅrata, one of the two epics of ancient India. (Woodard)

CL 594: Sanskrit 2 A continuation of the linguistic and philological study of Sanskrit. The course focuses on the study of Sanskrit grammar and Sanskrit readings from the MahÅbhÅrata and additional texts as time allows. (Woodard)

CL 595: Latin Syntax and Stylistics This class is made up of two distinct, but ultimately complementary, activities: the reading and stylistic analysis of selected Latin prose texts from the 2nd cent. BCE to the 5th cent. CE; and a systematic overview of Latin prose syntax through composition exercises. The goals are to provide a survey of the range of Latin prose style (including Cato, Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Livy, Seneca, Tacitus, Apuleius, and Jerome) and to compose Latin in order to achieve a firm grasp of proper Latin grammar and syntax. (Dugan)

CL 598: Indo-European Linguistics A linguistic examination of the Indo-European language family and its parent, Proto-Indo-European. The course surveys the family, focusing especially on the earliest members of each subfamily, examines in detail the grammar (lexicon, phonology, morphology and syntax) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, and investigates changes that occurred as the parent language evolved into the various attested Indo-European languages. (Woodard)

CL 611: Greek Historiography The goal of this seminar is to introduce Classics and Art History students to Greek epic poetry, lyric poetry and drama, and how the stories they tell were depicted in Greek art.

CL 634: Catallus In this seminar we will scrutinize Catullus’ appropriation and adaptation of Alexandrian poetics in order to arrive at a deeper understanding both of Catullus’ poetry and of Roman Alexandrianism as a whole.

CL 635: Hesiod A seminar investigation of the epic author Hesiod, designed to acquaint the student with recent research in Hesiodic studies; to provide students with the opportunity to read the Greek text of Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days; and to provide students with the opportunity to undertake original research on some topic related to Hesiod. (Woodard)

CL 707: Greek Literature The ancient Greek novel presents a puzzle: it was hugely popular in the Greco-Roman world, yet was never classified as a genre in antiquity. This is one reason why these works of extended prose fiction were not taken seriously by classical scholars until fairly recently. Another reason for the dismissal of the novels is the very thing that makes them so much fun to read: their adventurous and romantic plots involving young couples in love, devious pirates, decadent aristocrats, noble shepherds, and other colorful characters of the eastern Mediterranean. In this class, we will read several complete novels in translation, looking to their relationship with their literary ancestors (especially epic poetry, tragedy, Platonic philosophy, and new comedy), but also approaching these texts as rich sources for the culture of the Greek-speaking Roman empire as well as the intersection of that culture with its non-Greek neighbors in the east. Reading ancient sources in the original languages is not required, and graduate students from outside the Classics Department are welcome. (Fields)

In this class we will read selections from both the Iliad and the Odyssey, developing our skills in understanding Homeric Greek. We will familiarize ourselves with the scholarship in orality and apply it to the Homeric epics. (Higbie)

CL 708: Latin Literature

The Latin Literature Seminar offers graduate students an in-depth exploration of Latin texts at an advanced level. The topic changes each semester; the seminar may focus on a single author, a genre, a time-period, or a theme. Recent seminar topics include Vergil and his Critics, Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, Exchange Ideologies in Classical Literature, the Age of Nero. The seminar typically requires extensive reading in Latin, a survey of scholarship, and some combination of article critiques, in-class presentations, and a research project. (Malamud; Coffee)

Latin Literature - Seneca on Confronting the World

The younger Seneca was a towering figure in early Roman imperial politics and culture. In certain aspects of his career, he followed the example of his late Republican counterpart, Cicero. Seneca rose to prominence as a consummately skillful pleader in the courts, gained political power (in his case as advisor to Nero), wrote notable works on philosophy, and developed a style of speaking and writing that became canonical.

In other respects Seneca went farther than Cicero or diverged from him. Unlike the notoriously unquotable Cicero, Seneca’s pithy style, which rankled Caligula and Quintilian, gives us sharply perceived observations on human nature, such as veritatem dies aperit (“time discovers truth,” De ira 2.22) and quos laeserunt et oderunt (“whom they have injured they also hate,” De ira 2.33). Seneca shrewdly amassed phenomenal wealth. He advanced and propagated one particular school of philosophy, Stoicism. He was a brilliant playwright who gives us our only fully extant Roman tragedies. Seneca was also a kind of ancient scientist, who investigated and recorded natural phenomena.

In this graduate seminar, we will take the first few weeks to get acquainted with Seneca by surveying his life and works. We will then direct our focus to a topic that cuts across his life, philosophy, and tragedy: how to engage with others when the social or political environment is (potentially) adverse or hostile while remaining happy and well-balanced.

In his life, Seneca narrowly avoided death at the hands of Caligula, endured exile under Claudius, returned, then eventually lost favor with the emperor Nero, and was then ordered to commit suicide. It is no surprise that the question of how to deal with a challenging social environment became a recurring subject in his philosophical works. In On Anger (De ira), he addresses how to deal with anger (Nero’s we understand). And he devotes two treatises to the question of whether and how to retreat from public life, On Mental Tranquillity (De Tranquillitate Animi) and On Leisure (De Otio). Not coincidentally, Stoicism as a philosophy was one that instructed its adherents in various techniques of mental fortification in order to protect their psyches from the shocks of finding one’s way in the world. Seneca himself, with his practical Roman bent, is one of our main sources for these techniques. His tragedies touch more darkly on the same subject.

With both primary and secondary readings, the bulk of the course will focus on the question of engagement in Seneca’s works. Although this is not primarily a Latin reading course, we will read selections from Seneca in Latin to gain direct access to his thought and expression. (Coffee)

Political and Legal Theory in late Republican Rome A survey of political and legal thought in the last decades of the republic that will feature a close reading of portions of Cicero’s De Republica and De Legibus. (Dugan)

CL 711: Seminar of Greek History Several different courses are taught under this general listing:

Archaic Athens In this seminar we will conduct a diachronic analysis of Athenian political history during the archaic period. Topics discussed include: Solon's reforms, the tyranny of Peisistratos, the democratic revolution, and the Persian War. One of the overarching goals of the seminar is to better understand how the non-elite masses became the dominant political force in Athens. (Teegarden)

Greek History A diachronic analysis of socio-political change in Athens from the late Dark Age to the end of the Peloponnesian Wars. We will discuss several themes, including the emergence of democracy and the relationship between the threat credibility of individuals or factions and social order. (Teegarden) We begin by examining what Greek historians thought was important about their past and how they organized the chronology of that past. Then we will read some of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ essays on Greek historians and examine a series of topics, including the Greek use of evidence. Historians to be read (in selections) include Herodotus, Thucydides, and Polybius; other authors include Pausanias, Strabo, and Plutarch. (Higbie)

Dionysos Survey of representations of Dionysos in literature (concentrating on Euripides’ Bacchae and Aristophanes’ Frogs) and inscriptions found throughout the Greek world. Topics include Dionysian iconography as displayed on vases, coins, free standing sculpture, and votive reliefs; the varieties of archaeological evidence for the worship of this god; and the important inscriptions on stone, gold, bone, and ceramic relating to his cult. Covers material from Italy to Dura Europus and from Olbia to Egypt. Provides opportunities for students to use the methodologies of their graduate concentration and to develop new areas of expertise.

CL 712: Roman History This seminar will study the development of the writing of Roman History from the eighteenth through the early twenty-first century. The focus will be on a limited number of major historians, but I do not want it to become a ‘great man’ approach to the writing of Roman history. For each period I plan through the use of student presentations to explore ‘secondary’ historians as well as the general culture of ancient history writing in that period. Since all of the featured historians were what we might call today ‘public intellectuals’, we will also consider the wider political, social, and cultural world in which they worked and lived. (Dyson)

Several different courses are taught under this general listing:

The Classical Art Museum: Past, Present, Future. It will start with the Renaissance Collectors and take the development of the classical art museum down to the present. Consideration of the history of collecting but also the social and cultural role of museums and collecting in Europe and America will be considered. As we approach the contemporary world issues like antiquities legislation and the ethics of collecting will be considered. The final section will consider the present state and future of the classical art/archaeology museum. (Dyson)

Roman Countryside This seminar will explore diverse approaches to the understanding of the Roman countryside, which was the foundation of Roman society and economy in both the Republic and the Empire. The first part will be concerned with the historical dev elopement of the countryside during the Republic. Consideration will be given to the archaeological evidence, but also to the historical debates on the changing structure of rural society and the ‘ideology’ of Roman rural life’ as articulated in authors like Cato and Vergil. It will then look at the diverse patterns of rural development in different parts of the Empire. The changing nature of the villa will obviously be a central concern. However, consideration will also be given to wider rural social and economic structures as expressed in such institutions as religion and burial. (Dyson)

Roman Numismatics This seminar will study the evolution of Roman coinage and the coinage based economy from the third century BC to the fourth century AD. The first part of the course will focus on the changing nature of the coinage itself. The second will be concerned with the uses of coin information for resolving archaeological problems related to site dating and occupation history and historical problems related to propaganda and economic development. (Dyson)

Livy Livy’s reconstruction of the Roman Republic is probably our most important work for understanding the first seven centuries of Roman history. This seminar will focus on Livy’s agenda, his methods, and on changing scholarly and interpretative approaches to Livy. It will conclude with considerations on the later uses of Livy in the western classical tradition. (Dyson)

Tacitus Tacitus defines our vision of the Early Roman Empire. He also defines our vision of what life is life under an authoritarian regime. Tacitus approached history through a variety of genres, and this seminar will through readings in the Agricola, Dialogus, and the Histories how Tacitus used each form to achieve his historiographical ends. (Dyson)

The Topography and Social History of Ancient Rome This seminar will look at the development of the city of Rome from its foundation to the early Christianization of the city. The aim will be to combine the approaches of urban archaeology, art history, topography, and social and economic history to recreate the development pf Rome as a complex and on the whole successful mega-city. (Dyson)

The Development of the Historiography of Rome from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries The reconstruction of the history of ancient Rome has been one of the major historiographical challenges of the past two centuries. This seminar will look at this achievement through several major figures. Edward Gibbon, Theodor Mommsen, Michael Rostovtzeff, Ronald Syme, and Moses Finley will be the major ancient historians considered. In each case the emphasis will be both on their specific research and on the ways their historical environment shaped their analysis of ancient Rome. (Dyson)

CL 721: Greek Epigraphy Introduction to the study of Greek inscriptions and the research tools of Greek epigraphy, concentrating on the epigraphical evidence for Greek religious practice. Consideration of the traditional issues of Greek epigraphy (history of the alphabet, development of local scripts and letter forms, dialect variations, the major genres of inscribed texts, and problems of dating) in the context of the religious traditions of the Greek polis. Texts are chosen to illustrate the definition of ritual space, concern for pollution, requirements for sacrifice, organization of festivals, sanctuaries and priesthoods, and the recognition of the divine by the individual and the political community as expressed in dedications, sacred laws, the formulaic texts issued by cities, and tomb inscriptions.

CL 722: Latin Epigraphy A general introduction to the study of Latin/Roman inscriptions. The principal goals of the course are to familiarize students with the various categories of inscribed materials from the Roman world and to provide them experience in the translation of these, to familiarize students with the various ways in which inscribed materials from the Roman world are analyzed and interpreted and to provide them experience with some of these approaches, and to familiarize students with the various printed and electronic resources available for the study of inscribed materials from the Roman world. Students complete a semester project that involves compiling the corpus of funerary epitaphs pertaining to one specific occupation, preparing these for presentation, and analyzing these from a social/economic point of view.

CL 730: Roman Ostia An in-depth survey of the uniquely rich architectural, epigraphical, and material cultural remains of the ancient Roman town of Ostia and the research methods that scholars are currently employing to investigate these. Students complete a small GIS project in order to gain some familiarity with the application of GIS technology in archaeology and carry out weekly readings in Italian in order to improve their command of the scholarly literature in this language. For a semester project they complete a research design/mock grant proposal for a program of research at Ostia.

CL 787: Topics in Classical Archaeology

Several different courses are taught under this general listing:

The Roman Countryside The graduate seminar will investigate the intricate network of settlements that came into being in the Roman countryside, from the Early Republican period until Late Antiquity. Emphasis will be on a number of different kinds of settlements, such as sanctuaries, villas, cemeteries, vici (villages), manufacturing districts and their related productions, their relationships with nearby urban centers and the analysis of their economies. (Sebastiani)

Rome was throughout its history largely a rural society, but our literary sources are little concerned with life in the countryside. This seminar will look at how we can reconstruct the history of the Roman countryside with special emphasis on Italy and the Western Roman Provinces. Various archaeological techniques such as survey, remote sensing and aerial photography will be considered. However, the uses of art history and literary analysis will also be considered. (Dyson)

The History of Classical Archaeology This course will explore the development of Classical Archaeology as a discipline from its origins in the Italian Renaissance to the professionalism of today. It will look at archaeology and the antiquarian tradition, archaeology and neo-classicism, the history of collecting, and archaeology and nationalism, and archaeology and the ideologies of fascism and Nazism. For each era classical archaeology will be considered in relation to broader, cultural, intellectual, and political developments. (Dyson)

Roman Visual Culture This seminar will focus on the application of different art historical techniques to the major visual monuments of ancient Rome. Important areas of investigation will be Roman portraiture, Roman wall painting, and Roman relief sculpture. The history of the changing interpretation of Roman art as well as current models of interpretation will be studied. (Dyson)

CL 788: Archaeology of Western Roman Empire and Britain The creation of a Romanized west was the greatest achievement of Rome, but an achievement that was little covered in the literary sources. This seminar will study various techniques and approaches from inscriptions to popular art that are used in the reconstruction of Roman provincial history. While all of the western provinces will receive some attention, emphasis will be placed in Britain, Gaul and Germany. (Dyson)